when the poems do what they do (drink sum wtr)
aja monet
Released June 9, 2023
DownBeat Five-Star Review
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_l4FS9gj_S_Xs1noW5QUn31kybZX9OzFNI
Spotify:
About:
aja monet’s poems are a work of gravity. A surrealist blues poet, storyteller, and organizer born and raised in Brooklyn, NY, aja won the legendary Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam poetry award title in 2007. In 2018, she was nominated for a NAACP Literary Award for Poetry and in 2019 was awarded the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Award for Poetry for her cultural organizing work in South Florida. Her work moves, constantly, between origin and outcome, allowing them to exist in converse. In her debut album when the poems do what they do, releasing June 9 via drink sum wtr, we glimpse her indefatigable commitment to speak. Those thematic origins of this album at times center around Black resistance, love and the inexhaustible quest for joy.
In when the poems do what they do, aja monet appears as a woman of letters and storm, her poems do not roar in pentameter – but rather in storm surge because, “Who’s got time for poems when the world is on fire?!.” And this work isn’t one to pull apart into one liners, these are poems of things felt. There is a fullness here that can’t be encapsulated in even the boundaries that language offers.
aja is joined in effort on this album by musicians Christian Scott (trumpet), Samora Pinderhughes (piano), Elena Pinderhughes (flute), Luques Curtis (bass), Weedie Braimah (djembe) and Marcus Gilmore (drums). Together, creating music that is insistent and unrelenting.
When you finally reach the end of this album, you are left with a similar feeling you get when heartbroken, the gravity of barrelling back down to earth, sopping wet with tears, out of breath, overcome with love, despair, hope, and all too aware that all of this, is over far too soon. When the poems do what they do, they do absolutely everything.
Track Listing:
1. i am 03:48
2. why my love? 04:37
3. black joy 06:16
4. unhurt 06:36
5. weathering 05:41
6. the perfect storm 08:02
7. the devil you know 09:58
8. what makes you feel loved 02:30
9. for sonia 07:04
10. yemaya 12:38
11. castaway 04:33
12. give thanks 06:28
13. for the kids who live 04:56
Personnel:
aja monet: vocals
Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah: trumpet, Chief Adjuah’s bow
Weedie Braimah: percussion
Luques Curtis: bass
Marcus Gilmore: drums
Elena Pinderhughes: flute
Samora Pinderhughes: piano
Eryn Kane, Annabelle Freedman, Lonnie Holley, Jadele McPhearson, Assata Shakur: vocals
Executive Produced by aja monet
Produced by aja monet and Chief Adjuah
Assistant Production: Def Sound
Recording Engineer: Dave Weingarten
Mixing Engineer: Dave Weingarten
Assistant Engineer: Brodie Means
Mastering Engineer: Paul Blakemore
Recording Studio / Location: Westlake Recording Studio (Los Angeles)
Cover photography: delphine diallo
Review:
aja monet, well known on the literary scene, was the winner of the Nuyorican Poets Cafe Grand Slam Poetry Award in 2007. She has published four books of poetry, including The Black Unicorn Sings and Inner-City Chants and Cyborg Ciphers, and often performs accompanied by her musician friends. On this, her debut album, she’s backed by an impressive roster that includes trumpet player Chief Xian aTunde Adjuah, drummer Marcus Gilmore, bass player Luques Curtis and pianist Samora Pinderhughes. monet’s versatility is impressive. Her use of internal rhymes and rhythms, historical references and personal insight makes every poem shine. “i am” is a powerful introduction. Accompanied by djembe player Weedie Braimah, she pays homage to the history that shaped her vision and the artists she admires, from Billie Holiday to Bob Marley and La Lupe. Pinderhughes plays subtle piano chords as Gilmore’s drumming merges Latin, African, hip-hop and jazz rhythms on “black joy.” monet describes joyful moments, summing it all up with her closing words, “True joy has always been, and will always be, justice.” monet celebrates the place of poetry in the movement for social change in “for Sonia,” a nod to poet Sonia Sanchez, one of monet’s inspirations. “Who’s got time for poems, when the world’s on fire?” monet asks, answering the question herself, with a list of international tragedies that can be highlighted and partially healed by poetry, art and the free expression of grief.
j. poet (DownBeat)
